A new foundation seed is likely to be released this winter. Dr. Chuck Wilson, director of the Rice Research and Extension Center (RREC), said the rice experimental line is being grown this year.

“It is one that’s got high yield efficiencies and done well in the past few years in this heat,” Wilson said. “So it seems to be tolerant to the heat and it has pretty good qualities so we are excited about it and releasing it.”

There is also research focused on bacterial panicle blight, which Wilson said is one of the dominant diseases that they are spending a lot of time on.

Four new scientists have been hired at RREC since August. Wilson, who spoke to the Stuttgart Lions Club on Wednesday, said he continues to work on improving infrastructure and the overall appearance of RREC.

The present RREC facility was opened in January 2010, and has “really helped strengthen our ability to get our job done,” Wilson said. Their next goal, or hope, is to build a new foundation seed facility within the next three years.

“One of the primary things is we develop new rice varieties for farmers to grow,” Wilson said the process includes making crosses and selections until a pure supply of seed is found that can be multiplied and sold to farmers.

However, Wilson said their present seed plant is extremely old and could use replacing. “As the foundation seed, its very important to get our varieties we developed out into the hands of seed dealers so they can sell to the growers.”

In addition to research and facility management, Wilson said public awareness continues to be a third important aspect for RREC.

Wilson said they have to work to ensure that both the public and legislators understand how important their research and the crops are to the local, state and national communities.

Term limits mean that this awareness campaign is continued often. “Every two years, we got to go through this educational process not only with the general public, but withour state legislators in terms of who are we, what are we doing, what value do we have for the taxpayers,” Wilson said. “So events (such as the Rice Expo) are very politically important to maintain our support mainly at the state level but also the federal level.”